Scientists report discovery of 10-nanometer, individual, self-assembled dodecahedral structures ?-12-sided silica cages that could have applications in mesoscale material assembly, as well as medical diagnosis and therapeutics.

Researchers report a lightweight, high nitrogen-doping level carbon nanofiber framework as the current collector for lithium metal anodes, which could restrain the dendrite growth and achieve the uniform lithium deposition.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials that can change the way we capture carbon, filter water, and an array of other applications. Chemists have now found the link between mechanical stability and structure, thus overcoming a significant obstacle in optimizing MOFs.

Researchers more than doubled the ability of a material to convert heat into electricity, which could help reduce the amount of wasted heat, and thus wasted fossil fuel, in daily activities and industries.

The development of high-density data storage devices requires the highest possible density of elements in an array made up of individual nanomagnets. The closer they are together, the greater the magnetic interactions between them. Researchers now have devised a new model to study the variation of the magnetic interaction between such nanomagnets.

A group of physicists experimentally confirmed that molecular fingerprints of toxic, explosive, polluting and other dangerous substances could be reliably detected and identified by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using black silicon (b-Si) substrate.

Researchers are looking for new materials with unusual properties that were so far not accessible in experiments. To do this, they connect partners who don't really fit together: One partner forces the other into a state that would not be possible without the unlikely pairing.